All Your Waves Swept Over Me: Looking for God in Natural Disasters

The recent spate of cataclysmic natural events—including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan—drew editors de Flon and Wallace to collect this set of essays from Catholic scholars and writers (about half in religious orders). Struggling with the difficult topic of divine involvement in the world—are these disasters really “acts of God”?—the authors explore the natural world, the Bible and faith to gain insight into the mystery of human suffering. Drawing from personal reflection as well as theologians like Walter Brueggemann and Jürgen Moltmann, this unfocused but sometimes interesting collection includes advice for dealing with tragedies, discussion of Catholic moral theology and two essays presumably for preachers on liturgy in times of crisis. Several authors consider the idea that some natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, may involve human agency—and moral accountability. The writing is generally weak and too often pedestrian, but this book is an earnest attempt to address a key problem of faith without coming to easy (or offensive) answers; study questions and suggestions for further reading are included. (Nov.)